Best New Kickstarters For May 5, 2017

8 Awesome New Kickstarters You Should Check Out This Week

Kickstarter is a magical place -- or it can be, anyway. For each great invention to emerge from its pages, there are probably a dozen more that never had a prayer. Worst of all, though, is when great ideas go unnoticed. That means a great product that could have changed lives never gets the funding it deserved -- and often for no good reason.

To help avoid those great ideas falling through the cracks, each week we're bringing you handpicked Kickstarters you should know about. Some may have blown through their funding goal already, and some may be struggling, but they're all producing awesome gear that would make your life that much better.

Pazls: The Future Of Modular Furniture

Have you ever been furniture shopping, but unable to find exactly what it is you want. It happens to me all the time, and it's super frustrating. It'd be nice to be able to build your own, but most of us aren't master carpenters. For us, relief may come in the form of something called Pazls. Its modular, super-innovative design means the only limits are are your imagination (and how many pieces you have. Especially cool is the way that it uses magnets to engage the locking pins, meaning no tools are necessary for assembly.

SOUNDFLOAT: The Tech-Enabled, Luxury Air Lounge

Most companies don't put a lot of effort into making pool floats because, well, it's just a damn pool float. The same cannot be said for Soundfloat -- if you can think of a feature or capability you'd like to see in a pool flat, they've built it in. Listen to music, take phone calls hands-free, and even use your phone or tablet in their waterproof, touch-sensitive bag. Will a bunch of hot babes in bikinis spontaneously appear for a pool party when you use a Soundfloat? You won't know until you try.

MOKASE: The Phone Cover That Makes Coffee

I really had to read through this to make sure it's real, but it is: it's a phone case that actually makes coffee -- not a flask, but actual, fresh coffee. It works (as best I can understand) by inserting this little wafer into the case. Then an embeded battery activates, and it somehow mixes water in to produce hot coffee. If this actually works, it could be a lifesaver.

PLOOTA: A Sensor-Controlled Safety Device For Swimmers

Swimming can go from carefree fun to deadly in a matter of moments, and there aren't a lot of good solutions. Life jackets exist, of course, but they're uncomfortable and you can't really swim in them. What makes PLOOTA unique is that it's both unobtrusive and automatic: when it senses that your head has been underwater for more than 30 seconds, it deploys two airbags that will pull you up and keep your head above water -- even if you're unconscious.

ReFit: The smart armband for charging + personal monitoring

Having a dead phone battery sucks, but few people (especially men) have the desire to carry around an extra battery or portable charger. With ReFit, you don't have to -- because you're already wearing it. The device lives on your wrist like a watch, and when need be, it can give both Androids and iPhones up to 40% of a full charge. It also works as a heartrate monitor and fitness tracker, which is nice.

SDJ-02: Self Drying Jacket w/ Climate Control + USB Charging

Yeah, it's the Back To The Future II jacket -- but it's real! An improved version of an earlier prototype, the SDJ-02's defining feature is that if you get it wet, an internal fan will circulate warm air to quickly dry the jacket. But it'll also blow cold air to cool you off, and heating panels will give you a little extra warmth if you underestimated the weather. The battery also doubles as a power bank for your devices.

Seas - Smart Easy Affordable Security - Home alarm system

Home security systems are nice to have from a piece of mind standpoint, but they're far from reliable. They need either a landline (which you probably don't have) or WiFi (which is unstable) to connect, and sometimes the technology isn't exactly cutting edge. Seas elegantly solves those problems by relying on technology you almost certainly have at home: an old smartphone. Using that as its network, the small motion sensors can be placed just about anywhere. When it detects movement, you get a notice on your phone to sound an alarm, alert friends/neighbors or call the police.

Wrist Rack - Makes Your Tech Wearable

We tend to think of our phones as super convenient, and they mostly are -- until you need it and don't have a free hand to dig it out of your pocket. Wrist Rack solves that by putting your phone within eyeshot at all times, and allowing you at least monitor it completely hands-free. As they note in the marketing collateral, there are probably more situations when that happens than you'd think. Plus, if you just want to pretend you have a cool futuristic wrist computer, that's always cool too.